Into The Woods
by m7thewriter
Summary: A continuation of the 'Once Upon a Crime' episode, so minor spoilers for that. My first fanfic but is multi chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N **- I've been wanting to start wrting for some time now, but just never got around to it for some reason. After watching 'Once Upon a Crime' I thought that might be a good chance to continue a short story from the last scene in the episode. I didn't really know where I was going with this, just ended up writing and this is the end product, so hopefully its not to dreadful! The 'T' rating is just to cover myself if I add any future chapters. Any thoughts or feedback would be great as I'd love to start getting into writing.

Sorry for any bad grammar, formatting or spellings but my version of MS Office as somehow reverted to a trial version and won't give me my starter version back, so I've had to produce this on Wordpad which has no spellcheck! (At least thats the excuse I'm going with).

**Disclaimer** - I don't own Castle or anything related to it. Im sure my bank balance would be a lot healthier if I did!

"That's sweet" she said with warm smile on her face

"Your right that is sweet" Castle said quietly, surprised as to where his mother was going with this.

"sshhh" Alexis was taking her 'stage manger' role seriously enough to make sure her dad didn't interrupt.

He gave an apologetic look to his daughter "Sorry"

"Now, if Richard has only been able to embrace the role of son, with the same level of commitment"

"And into the woods we go" He said with a look that showed he knew Martha was only just beginning.

Beckett bit her lower lip to hold back a laugh and without realizing it laid her hand on top of Castle's curling her fingers around it. She just felt so comfortable and relaxed with him in the warm atmosphere of his loft that her brain didn't think to much about the action, in fact she'd turned back her attention onto Martha, captivated in what she was saying.

The contact of her hand on his though hadn't gone unnoticed by Castle, the second he'd felt her soft skin on his had taken his breath away and made his heart start racing. He couldn't believe that just a simple act of her holding his hand could have such an effect on him. As he grinned to himself he decided not to mention anything for fear she might pull away once she'd realized the position they were in. So he was happy just to enjoy the contact with her and couldn't help the huge smile on his face as he kept glancing at her while she was fixed on listening to Martha.

In the midst of all of this another Castle was being just as observant, this time it was little Castle, after having to 'sshh' her dad earlier she decided to glance across again just to make sure he was paying attention (she knew Beckett would be, as since she'd got there she'd been leant forward on the edge of the sofa clearly listening to Martha). What she saw however was her dad starring at Beckett with the biggest smile on his face. It was then that she saw Kate's hand on top of Rick's, with that she too lit up with a huge grin thinking that maybe it wouldn't be much longer before these two were together.

At that a small plan hatched in her head to help things coax things along a little, so whilst Kate was paying attention to Martha and Rick as practically drooling over Kate, she stealthily slid her phone out of her pocket, and snapped a picture of them on the sofa with their hands linked. Within seconds she'd already sent it to Lanie, with an attached message saying 'Looks like we'll have something to gossip about tomorrow! Think I might get in on that pool you've been talking about!'

Proud of her accomplishment she then turned her focus back to Martha who was still spinning out greatly exaggerated stories.

An hour later Martha had finished her performance and was at the door saying goodbye to her playwright. Alexis had offered to get another drink for Kate, sensing that her dad would offer but didn't want to get up to get them as it would mean he'd have to remove Kate's hand from his.

"Well I guess I can have one more drink, then I really should be off home" The word home did sound strange to in her mind though, as she said it she felt like she was already 'home', deciding it would be best to investigate that thought later on her own she turned to Rick and opted that conversation would be a good distraction.

"So was that really as painful as you'd feared?" Remembering back to how anxious Rick had been about what Martha might have come out with.

"You still have your gun right?" he joked.

Kate couldn't help but roll her eyes at that "Come on Castle it wasn't that bad, besides Martha seemed to enjoy herself"

"Lets just say I'm glad she stuck to only exaggerating the truth and didn't resort to embarrassing stories" he said with still somewhat fearful look in his eyes, which Kate couldn't help but find a little cute.

"I'm sure I could dig out a few stories to include if you'd prefer" Martha chimed in, having walked back into the room with an evil grin.

At that moment Rick swung his gaze back from Kate to Martha "NO!" he screamed out in a much higher pitched voice than he had intended.

Both Kate and Martha laughed at his sudden reaction.

"Besides mother I'm sure Beckett has heard more than enough of your voice tonight" he came out with in a slightly calmer voice, trying to rescue himself from the situation a little.

"What a charming son you are" Martha said sarcastically.

It took Kate only a second to realize that this was too good of an opportunity to pass up on torturing her partner a little.

"Actually Martha I'd love to hear some more stories" With that she turned back to Rick

"Maybe if I have some embarrassing stories on him, then I can use them to keep him in line at the precinct" A mischievous grin had now formed on her face and her tone was much more teasing.

"Beckett, your seriously going to resort to blackmailing me into behaving" Rick pouted.

"If it stops you playing on your phone all day and gets you helping with paperwork then maybe" She challenged knowing that they'd started on of their little games of banter

"Ah but if I ignore the paperwork and spend my day annoying you instead then maybe I get to see the cute angry Beckett" Satisfied that his comeback would see him win their little game, a smug smile grew on his face while he studied Beckett's face to see if she had a reply.

Kate could feel her face turning red, she needed a comeback and quick if she was going to win this one, then it came to her. "Not cute when im angry at you, remember" simple yet effective. When she saw him open his mouth then close it again when no reply came back she knew she'd won this round.

At this point both had realized that just like when building theory during a case, they'd subconsciously moved closer to each other with their faces just a few inches apart. But neither moved or broke away, as they just starred into each others gaze.

Martha seeing this decided it may be best if, for once, she didn't interrupt so turned back to head to the kitchen to help Alexis, only to find she'd already appeared next to her holding a tray of drinks for them all.

"Another glass of champagne for you to celebrate your performance" she offered handing Martha a glass.

"Ah thank you my dear, though I've a feeling we'll need to save some champagne as we'll soon be celebrating something more special" as she nodded toward the two on the sofa taking the glass from Alexis hands.

"If they ever rejoin us from whatever spell they both seen to be frozen in" that is, referring to them not having moved for the last few minutes.

"I know how to snap them out of it" Alexis winked at Martha as she moved to sit in a chair near her dad's side of the sofa.

Raising her voice slightly, just to enough to make sure they both heard her, she simply called across to Martha who had sat in an armchair opposite her "I think Lanie calls it 'eye sex', says they normally snap out of it on their own!"

And those words were enough to break the spell of the two sitting on the sofa, they pulled apart, Kate finally breaking away from the hand she'd been holding, while her face lit up scarlet blushing. Rick in the meantime was left starring at Alexis in shock jaw hanging open in shock that his daughter had come out with such a thing.

So thanks to anyone that took time to read this, I'd love to hear any reviews or feedback, don't know if I should leave this as a oneshot or try to do a couple more chapters, advice would be worth its weight in gold :)


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** So firstly a big thanks to all those that reviewed, and to all those who added this to alerts/favorites, its really pleasing to know some of you enjoyed it. I still don't have a clear direction for this story yet, so I honestly don't know how many more chapters there will be. Also its currently 3am where I am, so thought I've tried to make sure there's no mistakes in this my eyes are tired, so I may have missed a few. Anyway I hope you all continue to enjoy this, and as always any feedback would be more than welcomed.

**Disclaimer** - I don't own Castle or anything.

Whilst the laughter from Martha and Alexis filled the room, time seemed to slow down for the writer and detective as they both ran a million thoughts through their minds.

On one side of the sofa Rick was left wandering what on earth to do. Sure he was still stunned at what Alexis had come out with, but he knew that she was just joking around so he wasn't really mad at her. What really scared him was how Kate would react to the comment, he was sure she'd start to over think things and make a hasty exit. The thought of her leaving caused a pain in his heart, they'd been having such a fun evening he hadn't wanted it to end.

At the same time Kate could feel the blush taking over her face, she'd now turned her gaze to the floor in an attempt not to make eye contact with anyone while she collected her thoughts. One part of her mind was telling her to make an excuse to leave and head for the safety of her apartment. The other part of her mind was simply saying 'why run back to be alone in an empty apartment when this is really where you want to be anyway'. And as much as it scared her to admit it, the later option did sound a hell of a lot better. Yup her mind was set, she wasn't going anywhere, now she just needed to make sure Rick knew that to. It was at that moment that Ricks voice interrupted her trail of thought.

"I'm sorry she came out with that, I did used to have a sweet daughter but I'm sure she's gotten more evil in her teenage years!" Rick joked as he turned toward Kate, trying to work out what she was thinking.

"Did you just imply that Alexis was evil?" Kate said as she reached for her drink before relaxing back on the sofa, hoping that Rick would see it as a sign she was quiet comfortable staying where she was. Going by the way he was looking at her and the huge smile he had on his face, she assumed he'd understood her silent message.

"Yeah dad, how could you even begin to think that!" A point which Alexis punctuated by throwing a cushion that hit her dad square in the face.

"Well I...uhh, what I meant was...ummm...mother some help please?" Rick pleaded toward Martha hoping for some support.

"Sorry kiddo you're on your own with this one" Martha smirked, content to sit back and spectate on the entertainment unfolding before her.

"You really are unbelievable" Kate chuckled as she too picked up a cushion and whacked Rick round the head with it.

"Oww, apples!" Rick whined as he tried to defend himself from a cushion wielding detective.

"Apples?" Alexis silently mouthed to Martha with a very confused look on her face.

Martha, who was looking equally as puzzled just shrugged then shook her head with the implication that it was probably best she didn't ask about that one.

"Ok, ok I take it back, Alexis not evil" Rick conceded knowing there was no way he was going to win this one.

"See this is why I didn't want you doing that internship at the precinct, you hear about things from where I work and bring them home to use against me" Rick muttered, having a little sulk that he'd been ganged up against.

"Where you work? Really? I thought you just followed me around where I work" Kate proclaimed rolling her eyes at him.

"Hey I help with things!"

"I don't think playing on your phone all day counts as helping dad" Alexis was quiet enjoying having Kate as her co-conspirator to wind up her dad.

"See she knows everything that I do at the precinct!" Rick claimed pointing at Alexis as he said it. "Its an invasion of privacy"

"Heaven knows what that's like" Kate exclaimed sarcastically giving him another roll of her eyes.

"Well don't blame me, its just what I hear from Lanie! Blame her she must be a bad influence on me" Alexis offered in her defence.

"Oh we will!" Both Kate and Rick announced at exactly the same time, causing another giggle from Alexis.

"Trust me, I'll definitely be having words when I see her next!" Kate announced in a rather scary tone.

"I'll be sure to give her advance warning" Alexis grinned back toward her.

"In fact thinking about it I'd better turn in and get an early night as Lanie had asked me if I could go in early tomorrow to help her out with a few things" With that she got up and headed over to Rick leaning in to give him his goodnight hug "Night dad"

"Night pumpkin" Rick replied returning the hug.

She then exchanged her good nights with Martha and Kate before heading to her room, though before she made it to the stairs she turned back toward the living room

"Tonight was fun, you should make sure to visit more often Detective Beckett, you know you're welcome here anytime, maybe you could come next week at some point?"

Kate was taken a little by surprise, but inside she was over the moon that Alexis seemed genuinely happy to have spent the evening with her. She'd always liked Alexis, but since her shooting things had been tense between them, after the bank robbery incident she'd felt like maybe the bridge between them had started to mend, and after tonight it seemed that the bridge between them had not only been completely rebuilt, but strengthened as well. A thought that brought her both relief and happiness.

"Thanks Alexis I'd like that, I'm sure I'll be able to make it one evening next week. And please you know you don't have to call me Detective Beckett, Kate's fine"

"That's great I'll look forward to it, night Kate"

"Night Alexis" Kate called back to Alexis as she turned then disappeared up the stairs.

Having observed just how well the two most important women in his life were getting on with each other, Rick couldn't have had a bigger smile on his face if he'd tried.

Over the next hour or so the writer, detective and actress had split a bottle of wine between them as they chatted away about all kinds of things, from Martha's show, to funny and unusual cases Kate had seen over the years, to just general random facts and trivia that interested them.

Kate had intended to have left some time ago, but decided that as she wasn't on call tomorrow and didn't have to be up early for anything it couldn't hurt to stay for a while longer. Besides the sofa she was attached to had now become just to damn comfy to leave. Another reasoning for her staying was that over the last fifteen minutes Martha had taken to finally telling her some of Rick's embarrassing childhood moments that she'd earlier been promised.

"No! He really did that?" Kate gasped, her jaw hanging open.

"I'm telling you she's exaggerating the truth again, that never happened!" Rick sighed, knowing that in actual fact Martha had been telling Kate the true stories all along, not that he'd admit it to her.

"Richard my dear, as extravagant as I may be, you know that its all true" Martha herself could barely contain her laughter, as she remembered back many years to when she was raising her son, and all the trouble he ended up getting into.

"Martha, I can't thank you enough for this evening, I'm sure that Ryan and Esposito will have a field day with Castle when they find out about that one!" She turned toward Rick wiping away the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes. "And they WILL find out about it" she smirked with and evil grin on her face.

"I'll deny all knowledge, and plead innocent" He argued half heartedly.

"And you think they'll believe you over me?"

"Well its only your word against mine, I could tell them you're making everything up"

"I have a witness" Kate glared playfully at Rick.

"No, you have a crazy actress, that's still not enough evidence to prove anything" Rick announced crossing his arms, thinking he'd finally won one of their little games tonight.

A loud cough from Martha then interrupted their squabbling "Children please calm down"

"Its a wonder you two solve any murders if you're like this all the time" she commented as she rose up from her chair and started to make her way out of the room.

"Where's she going?" Kate asked looking to Rick for an explanation

"I really have no idea" Rick was unsure himself what Martha was up to, all he knew is he had a bad feeling about it.

A few moments later Martha returned holding what appeared to be a dark red leather bound book. Rick couldn't quite put his finger on where he'd seen that before, and that worried him...a lot.

"Here you go detective, just remember with great power comes great responsibility" Martha announced handing the book to Kate

"What is it?" Kate questioned as she accepted it from Martha

"I've always thought of it as Richard Castle the early years, but perhaps it might be simpler in this instance if you just call it evidence!" She emphasized that last word with a glare toward Rick.

It was then than Rick realized his punishment, Martha hadn't returned with a book ,she'd returned with a photo album, one that contained a mix of baby photos of him, going all the way up to his late teens if he remembered rightly.

As she opened the cover it didn't take long for Kate to realize what was in her hands, she bit down on her bottom lip trying to hold back the giant grin forming on her face.

"I'm going to retire for the night anyway, so I'll leave that in your capable hands my dear" Martha announced to Kate as she headed back toward the stairs.

As Martha passed Rick he asked her "Mother how could you do such a thing?" His voice suddenly sounding very dry. "Well my dear, that's what you get for referring to me as a 'crazy actress'" then turning to Kate she added "Oh and Kate my dear, I think the photo to prove that earlier story is on page twelve if I'm not mistaken!" with that she spun round made her way upstairs leaving the just Kate and Rick in the living room.

Once Martha had left, Kate slowly opened the photo album onto the page Martha had suggested, her eyes widening when she saw the photo. Razing an eyebrow at Rick with a smug grin she simply said "Checkmate!".

Rick just groaned sinking further into the sofa, covering his face with his hands, knowing there was no way Kate was going to let him live this down.

Any thoughts?


	3. Chapter 3

A/N - Sorry its taken a while to update, meant to get something done before the weekend. Thanks to all that are still reading/reviewing/adding to alerts etc. And special thanks to bones35 for giving me a few pointers and showing me a few typos I'd made. I will have at least one more chapter after this, my guess is about a week.

Dislcaimer - As always I still don't own Castle

As the morning sun began its slow ascent from the horizon over New York City its rays of light breached through the windows of Castle's loft, dust particles seemingly trapped in its beams, swirling around majestically, never quite appearing to settle. The beams of light continued to radiate further into the loft, until finally deciding to settle on the face of one of New York's finest detectives.

Upon feeling the warmth of the sun on her face, Kate slowly woke from her sleep, her eyes cautiously opening whilst they adjusted to the light. Though Kate was awake, she didn't seem to want to get up or move, for some reason she just felt happy and cozy where she was this morning. Subconsciously her ever active mind began to formulate a list of reasons as to why this morning seemed to feel so much better than any other. Was it simply because she woke up naturally to sunlight and not an alarm this morning? Was it that she couldn't hear the usual noise of traffic and car horns this morning? Or was it just that fact that this sofa was more comfortable than her bed?

That last thought seemed to start the cogs turning, she wasn't in her bed. In fact she didn't appear to even be in her apartment! Though strangely she didn't seemed too phased by this revelation, after all she did feel safe and secure where she was. Lifting her head slightly she scanned the room, and within just a few seconds had picked out enough familiar objects to confirm what she'd initially thought, she was in Castle's loft.

Having now remembered where she was had been enough to jump start her into remembering how she'd ended up sleeping there. With that thought she turned her attention back to the sofa she was on, or more specifically the writer that was on the sofa with her. He was sprawled out below her, one arm wrapped protectively around her waist, the other hanging off the side of the sofa dropping toward the floor, his face looked peaceful with a huge smile plastered across it. Kate couldn't resist letting her hand brush across his face before running her fingers through his messy morning hair, a beaming smile lighting up her face as her mind wandered back to the events of the evening before.

_8 hours earlier _

Once Martha had left, Kate had continued to flick through the photo album intrigued at this new insight to Rick's past. Sure she may have known a little of his mysterious past from what she'd read in the papers and his website, but most of that had probably been either made up or altered by the media anyway. And though he'd often mentioned to her about the times when he'd been razing Alexis, he'd never really spoke much about himself growing up. Finding out all these new bits of history about 'young' Rick Castle made her feel quiet privileged and special, he was sharing with her the sort of things only his family knew about him.

Typically for each photo she asked about, Rick, being the creative writer he was, would not just tell the story behind it, but he'd also build the scene from the ground up, covering every tiny little detail as he relived the photo in question. The way he took the words and painted such a vivid picture with them reminded Kate of how he'd narrated to her some of the pages from Joe's diary in the Blue Butterfly case.

Despite Rick's initial enthusiasm though, there were some slightly more embarrassing photos to which he'd been a bit more reluctant to elaborate on. In the grand scheme of things though Rick had known he was only stalling for time as it didn't take Kate's renowned interrogation skills to break him and get her the story she was after.

As the night progressed Rick had turned the trip down memory lane into a small game by giving Kate two short stories to each photo, leaving it up to her to try and work out which one was true, and only giving her more details about it if she guessed correctly. Much to his dismay though she had an alarmingly high success rate in guessing the correct version of events.

"Well I have to hand it to you Castle, your early years were certainly eventful!"

"What can I say, I'm just and interesting person" Rick gave her a smug looking smile

"Sorry I didn't mean to inflate your ego anymore than it already was"

"Very funny detective"

"Maybe I should take one of your baby photos into the precinct to show everyone how cute you used to be" Kate teased, knowing he'd pick up on the later part of what she'd said.

"What do you mean used to be?" Rick pretended to sound offended, though couldn't quite pull it off as he let out a small laugh

"Well now you're just ruggedly handsome" Kate once more teased

"I'm glad you think so" The grin on Ricks face said it all.

Kate just rolled her eyes once more as she reached for her glass.

"So why have you never written a autobiography with all this in? I'm sure it'd be a bestseller in no time" The thought had just popped into her head from nowhere in particular.

"Actually my publisher did ask me a few years ago if I'd do one, and I said no to them back then" Rick was looking up blankly at the celling as if he was remembering back.

"So how come you said no?" Kate asked, now even more curious to know the answer.

"I didn't want to share my whole past with everyone, don't get me wrong I'm happy to have some publicity in the media, but some things are personal, just for me and my family to share"

"You shared all that with me though" Kate said hesitantly as she looked at Rick.

"Well you know I don't consider you just anyone" Rick returned her gaze, starring into her eyes.

She knew the meaning behind his words, her heart beating more rapidly as she thought about them. She'd given up trying to deny her feelings for him, and she already knew how he felt about her. An air of silence filled the gap between them as her mind fought that never ending internal battle of weather or not to move things forward with them.

But just as she opened her mouth about to reply, Rick interrupted cutting in.

"Besides, if I were to write an autobiography then I'd rather explain how I go about saving the world from murderers, bank robberies and bombs every day with my extraordinary sexy superhuman sidekick!" Rick joked, feeling he had to try and lighten the mood after the awkward silence a moment ago, though unaware of what Kate had been about to tell him.

Kate was a little frustrated that she'd come so close to saying something and still hadn't, but also quite thankful she'd now have more time to work out exactly what to say to him. For now she'd just continue with the conversation at hand.

"Saving the world Castle? Isn't that a bit of an exager...hang on a minute did you just call me the sidekick?" She gave 'a look' in Rick's direction, causing him to move a cushion between him and Kate as if it might offer him some sort of protection.

"Well I do often end up saving you"

"Sometimes maybe, though I thought we'd agreed to call it 50/50" Kate referred back to the argument they'd already had after the bank robbery incident.

"Ok that's true, we did settle on that. But I do come up with more theories for catching the bad guys then you"

"You may come up with more theories, but I'm the one that actually catches the bad guys using actual evidence while you're off looking for ghosts or running away from tigers!"

"Hey that tiger was after you as well!" It wasn't much of a defense but it was all he had.

"Fine that one I'll give you" Kate managed to get out whilst yawning.

"Didn't realize it was past your bedtime" He couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Its just been a long day, but worth it" Kate smiled back.

"Well you can't drive, you've had to much to drink"

"Being a cop I think I know what the law is" She may have been tired, but she could still manage sarcasm.

"I can call you a cab, I'm sure I've got a number in my phone somewhere" Rick took out his phone and began scrolling through his contacts, but was caught off guard by Kate's next words.

"Besides, I don't want to go" Kate bit down on her lip as she looked at Rick.

Rick's phone actually dropped out of his hand onto the floor as he froze, looking up at Kate.

Kate moved closer and leant her head on Rick's shoulder

"I'm tired of running, from this...from us" She closed her eyes as she snuggled further into him

"Are you sure this isn't the wine talking?" Although inside Rick was over the moon, he was also vey concerned that she wasn't aware of what she was saying.

She opened her eyes again, and turned to look him in the eyes

"I know what I'm saying Rick, I know I've had a few drinks, but its not the wine talking"

She could see in Rick's eyes the worry he had that she was out of it, and could understand why he'd be thinking that. Coming to the conclusion that she was too tired to convince him that what she was telling him was from her heart and not the bottle of wine, she decided it might be best to leave the feelings and relationship conversation till the morning when they both had fresh minds.

"Rick to put your mind at ease, and make sure alcohol isn't a factor, we'll talk about this in the morning. And I promise you I'll remember all this" She rested her head back on his chest, closing her eyes once more slowly drifting off.

Rick didn't know what to make of the last few minutes, he just prayed she'd remember what she'd said in the morning, at that she really was ready to give them a chance.

He simply wrapped his arms around her holding her closer, as he did he heard her softly murmur "Can we just stay like this for a while"

"Always" He replied softly, gently laying back on the sofa still holding Kate as he too drifted off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N - Sorry about the delay on updating, on the plus side I've had a few ideas for futrue chapters, toying with introducing a case of some form. Any thoughts on weather to continue or not are appreciated. Once again thanks to all those that took the time to review.

Disclaimer - I still don't own Castle.

Rick awoke the next morning to find himself on his back laying on the sofa, his eyes remained closed as he let out a small yawn whilst he stretched his arms into the air, locking his fingers together as he brought his hands back down to rest behind his head, giving him a little more support than the arm of the sofa. As his eyes opened he couldn't help but notice the bright sunlight that was cascading across the loft, an indication that he'd probably slept for a little longer than usual. Normally he wasn't one to lay in for too long, the idea of being up to make the most of each day was normally more appealing than another hours sleep, that and the fact he was often woken in the early hours of the morning by a call about a dead body anyway.

As far as he could remember that was the best he'd ever slept, and although he felt especially well rested this morning, there was no intention on his mind of actually getting up just yet. After all enough of the morning had already elapsed, so what harm would thirty more minutes do? But whilst he starred absently at the celling entertaining that thought he was interrupted by the sounds of movement coming from the direction of the kitchen. Letting curiosity get the better of him, he slowly got to his feet and wandered off in the direction of the sounds he could hear.

Approaching the kitchen Rick froze in his tracks, completely stunned as he observed the somewhat surreal sight before him. Two plates were set on the counter with cutlery set out beside them, the coffee machine had two cups sitting on top of it being warmed as the machine itself was hissing away heating the water ready for use, and there was a Kate Beckett standing at the hob with a frying pan cooking something, pancakes if his nose didn't deceive him.

Standing there taking in the scene Rick started to put the pieces of the puzzle together as his memory flooded back to him. He recalled the night before, how they'd sat and listened to his mother's show, how him and Kate had sat there laughing and joking as she'd teased him about the photos, then about her implying that she wanted to move things forward with them, and finally how they'd fallen asleep after she told him she didn't want to go. When he awoke this morning the previous evening had crossed his mind, but the events during its later stages had made him think it was too good to be true, so he'd dismissed it from reality assuming it had all been a dream. Only now with Kate here and cooking breakfast in his kitchen was it setting in as reality.

A mixture of thoughts and emotions whirled around in his mind as he continued to watch Kate who was seemingly unaware of his presence at this stage. What should he say? Would she remember what she'd said? Should he act normal and pretend nothing happened so she wouldn't feel awkward? Part of him was scarred that she'd try and avoid the subject, but the fact she was here in front of him gave him hope that she was ready, a thought that formed a massive smile across his face.

Kate had sensed Rick approach the kitchen the minute he'd got there, and she'd felt his gaze on the back of her head whilst he'd been standing there thinking to himself. Kate knew he'd be trying to work out what to do, weather or not to say anything, or more to the point weather or not she'd say anything. She couldn't blame him for thinking she might run from the situation, it was after all what she'd been doing for far to long now. She slid the last pancake from the pan onto the pile of others on the plate beside her, picking up the plate she spun around deciding that it was time to face her writer.

"Morning sleepy, I figured it was about time I returned the favor for when you cooked for me all them years ago" Kate said in a cheery voice with a bright smile as she turned to face Rick.

A little glad that Kate seemed relaxed and not on edge, Rick decided it would be best just to go along with the conversation and see how things unfolded later.

"Thanks, though please don't tell me a dead body will fall through my door if I open it" He recalled back to the exact events of the morning Kate was referring to.

"Ah, forgot about that part" As she cast her mind back, at the same time moving over to the two plates as she started to distribute the pancakes between them.

Rick had made his way to the coffee machine, removing the mugs from the top, placing them underneath before pressing the button to start the coffee flowing into them. As he did this Kate watched him, seeing that he was still silently wondering about 'them', still being unsure of exactly how this conversation was going to go, she just decided to jump in and hope for the best.

"To answer the question your thinking, I meant all of what I said" Kate didn't sound as nervous as she thought she might.

Rick wasn't surprised that she'd been able to read his mind, but he was taken back that she'd been the one to bring up the elephant in the room.

"You...Did?" Rick stuttered out, sounding very unsure of himself.

Kate could feel the butterflies in her stomach as she walked over to Rick, wrapping her hands around his waist as she looked into his eyes.

"Yes I did" She paused slightly, taking in the moment before continuing. "It took me a long time to sort out my feelings for you, then even longer to admit them to myself. Sure this is a big change and that scares me a little, but I don't want to run or wait anymore"

Once again Kate had to pause to recapture her thoughts before continuing, she was mildly distracted by the fact that Rick had now wrapped his arms around her and pulled her a little closer as his eyes were lost in hers.

"I know it won't be plain sailing, we'll annoy each other and argue, but after all we've been through I'm sure we can make this work, and I want to make it work, and..." Kate's heart was beating faster than ever as knew she could no longer hold back the words she was about to say. "...And I love you"

Rick could hardly believe this was happening, Kate Beckett, the woman of his dreams had just told him she loved him! His heart was practically jumping around inside him doing a celebration dance. Somewhat shocked and in disbelief he was lost for words, his brain was struggling to catch up and form any sentences. A best selling author at a loss for words, only Kate could have this effect on him. "Please tell me I'm not dreaming this" was about all he could muster out.

Kate let out a small giggle when Rick replied, she'd just confessed to him that she loved him and it had virtually put him into shock. "It's not a dream" she whispered to him with a massive grin on her face, as their heads slowly gravitated towards one another.

Rick felt Kate's lips softly press against his, he couldn't stop his hands from pulling her closer before they started wandering her back causing Kate to let out a small moan. She responded by deepening the kiss, letting her own hands drift up to Ricks head, one hand finding its way around his neck pressing him further toward her whilst the other ran through his messy hair. Finally they broke apart both gasping for air breathing heavily, Kate's heart was flipping inside her, nothing had ever given her this feeling. Expect maybe when they'd kissed whilst undercover a few years ago, but this time it was for real. If her partners reaction was anything to go by then he'd found it just as intense.

"Tha...wa...amazing" Rick gasped unable to recover his ability for speech.

Kate looked back at him with a playful grin "As I said years ago 'you have no idea!'"

"And how right you were" Rick's brain had now regained the use of words.

"And by the way, I love you to Kate" Rick leant back in to kissing Kate softly once again, only before they got to carried away this time they were interrupted by the beeping of the long since forgotten coffee machine, which thankfully had an auto cut off, otherwise by now the worktop and floor would have been drenched in overflowing espresso.

As they pulled apart they both looked in the direction of the beeping.

"Maybe we should get breakfast before it goes cold" Kate suggested, not that she wanted to leave Rick's arms, but she was getting quite hungry.

"Good idea, I'd much rather try those pancakes while their still warm" Rick let Kate slip out of his arms while he picked up the coffees, before sitting next to her at the table placing the cups down.

"Not only that, I've seen what happens if you miss your morning coffee" Inspite of everything that just happened he couldn't contain himself from teasing her.

"Just because we're together now doesn't mean I won't shoot you" She sent a teasing glare back at him.

The grin disappeared from Rick's face, but only momentarily. "Nah, you still wouldn't want the extra paperwork"

Both smiled as they dug into their pancakes, although their relationship had taken a giant leap forward it hadn't changed the banter they had between them.

"Mmm, these are good" Rick proclaimed as he swallowed the bit of pancake he'd been eating.

"Just because I order take out a lot doesn't mean I can't cook" , "Though don't get used to it, the next batch is on you" She quickly added.

"That's fine with me, besides mine are still better anyway" Rick stuck his tongue out at her, earning him his first Beckett eye roll of the day.

As they were both happily eating away the screen on Kate's phone lit up as it rung out with an incoming call.


	5. Chapter 5

AN - Sorry It's taken a long time to update, Had some unexpected stuff pop up this week which meant I didn't have time to write, Sorry. On a plus side I've got some more ideas to where this story is going, so there will still be a few more chapters. Hopefully some of you out there will still enjoy reading it. I've also just corrected a few spelling mistakes in some previous chapters and re uploaded them.

Disclaimer - Castle doesn't belong to me (Do I really have to put this every chapter or can you get away with it if you've posted it in chapter 1?)

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><p>Kate let out a sigh of fustration as she glanced over at the phone she'd left on the counter next to her plate. It wasn't the fact someone was calling her that she was bothered about, it was the fact that the caller ID indicated that the call was coming from the precinct, and that normally meant you could say goodbye to any plans you might have had for the day.<p>

Staring at the screen of the phone she now found herself in a moral dilema. She could just ignore or reject the call, after all herself and Rick had just confessed how they felt about each other and taken a significant leap forward together to become a couple, so spending the whole day alone with him while they got used to their new relationship was what she'd been hoping for. On the other hand she was still a homicide detective, if a body dropped and her help was needed then how could she turn her back from that? It was up to her to help bring closure to loved ones of the victims and to find and catch those responsible for such crimes.

Taking a deep breath she picked up the phone knowing she was making the right choice.

"Beckett" She answered in her usual maner, though sounding somewhat deflated.

"Hey its Ryan, ummm...I know your not supposed to be on call today but we've got a body and...well...uh...Gates wants you in...Sorry" Ryan sounded very appologetic, he'd been on the recieving end of these sort of phone calls and always hated it.

"No need to be sorry Ryan, its Gates asking me to come in, you just drew the short straw to tell me" Kate could hear Ryan let out a sigh of relief when he realised she wasn't mad at him.

"Actually we went for Rock, Paper, scissors this time. I think Esposito cheated though!" He threw a glance toward the Hispanic detective who was laying back smugly in his chair with a victory grin on his face.

"Uh huh, of course he did" Kate wasn't suprised at all by the fact that they had actually played a game to decide which one of them had to call her to get her in. They must have picked it up from Rick she thought to herself.

"So anyway what have got?" She questioned bringing the conversation back on track.

"The calls only just come in so we don't have the full details yet, but the vic's name is Alex Warner, soon as Gates heard the name she said to get everyone in and make it a priority"

"So what's so special about him?" As Kate asked she could hear Ryan shout over to Esposito telling him to pick up his phone and patch into the call.

"Yo Beckett" He greeted

"Hey, so who exaclty is Alex Warner?"

"He was a public defender, a good one at that, but more importantly he was also leading a campaign to try and unite the city against crime, raise public awareness and that sort of thing"

"He was sort of a white knight Harvey Dent type of character" Ryan chimmed in sounding pleased with himself

"Who?" Kate asked having no clue what Ryan was on about.

"You know...from Batman, neither of you watch The Dark Knight?" Ryan was now sounding slightly dissapointed that no one picked up on his referance.

"Seriously bro? Comparing a murder victim to a character from Batman?" Esposito swiveld around in his chair to face Ryan.

"I thought it was a good comparrison, Castle would have got it" Ryan slumped back in his seat as he sulked to himself while Esposito just shook his head at him.

"Umm Guys back to the details" Kate promted once more, trying to get the conversation back on topic.

"Right, We're just about to leave the precinct and head over to the crime scene now, I'll text you the address, reckon we'll be there in about 30 minutes" Esposito said as he looked at the piece of paper that he'd scribbled the address down on earlier.

"Thanks guys, we'll meet you there in a bit" And with that Kate hung up.

After both Ryan and Esposito placed the phone recievers back on the base units they paused and turned to face each other with the same puzzled look.

"Did she just say 'We'll see you there'?" Ryan asked almost doubting what he'd heard.

"I assume she meant her and Castle" Esposito thought to himself out loud.

"It's only just after 9am, on her day off, and she's with Castle this early?" He followed up his thoughts.

"You think something happaned?" Ryan asked.

"I'll phone Lanie on the way, see if she can shed any light on it, if anythings going on she'll find out" Esposito was certain of that.

"Great idea, you do that I'll drive" Ryan seemed all to eager to snatch the keys from Esposito's hand as they headed toward the elevator.

Esposito looked blankly for a second at him wondering why he was so keen to drive, then it clicked

"Oh god, you're gonna pretend our cruiser is the Batmobile aren't you" He leant back against the wall as the steel doors closed shut.

"Yup" Ryan replied with a childish grin.

Back at the Castle loft Kate hung up her phone, placing it back on the counter as she downed what was remaining of her morning coffee.

"So we have a case?" Rick hadn't heard the guys on the other end of the phone, but had come to that conclusion from Kate's end of the conversation.

"I'm sorry, but yes I'm gonna have to go in today, I was hoping we could just spend it together but Gate's is calling in the whole cavalry on this one" Kate bit her bottom lip as she looked at Rick hoping that he would understand.

"No need to be sorry, you're not one to turn down a case anyway, it's who you are, it's what makes you so extraordiary" His words were scincere, but Kate still couldn't stop her heart from fluttering every time he mentioned her name and extraordinary in the same scentance.

"Besides, we still get to spend the day together anyway"

"Only now it's you, me and a dead body" Kate interjected while looking at her phone at the text she'd just recieved from Esposito with the location of the crime scene.

"We'll a dead body is always fun" His strange choice of words made Kate raise an eyebrow at him.

"Hmm, poor choice of words, let me rephrase that, solving an exciting case with you is always fun" Rick corrected.

"We'll I've got a feeling your going to love this one, Ryan's already comparing the victim to some Batman character" She could see the gleam in Rick's eyes as soon as the word Batman was mentioned.

"Tell me who!" Rick was now in his excited sugar rush mode, a side of him Kate had found quite adorable over the years.

"You'll just have to guess" She could have told him, but toying with him was always more enjoyable.

"The Joker? no, The Riddler? Or Alfred?...Unless he's the killer, maybe this time the killer actually was the butler!" Rick was now pacing back and forth while he tried to guess.

"Ok, maybe we should get to the crime scene and find out some more infomation before you stat conjuring up any more crazy theories" Kate had now to stood up and started toward the door

"Admit it, you do enjoy my theories" Rick had automatically followed Kate to the door and was now helping her into her coat.

"I do, one of the reasons I love you so much" Kate leant forward and placed a quick kiss on his lips, or at least it started out as a quick kiss but both were soon tangled up in each other again. After breaking for air Kate found that somehow she was pressed against the door with her arms wrapped around Rick's shoulders, both of them breathing heavy as they tried to replemish oxygen.

"Wow, that gets better everytime!" Rick managed between breaths

"No kidding" Kate was in full agreement.

"But we really should get going, otherwise we're never going to make it out of here" She added, suddenly remembering that they had a dead body and a case to solve.

"We'll you started it!" Rick smirked back, that comment earnt him a slap across his chest as Kate turned to open the door.

"Umm, Kate" The sudden change of tone and seriousness to his voice made Kate spin round on the spot.

"What's wrong?" She said as she observed the worried look in his eyes

"Just so I know for when we arrive at the crime scene, are we a couple while we're working to? As in do we tell anyone about us?" His question threw Kate a little, everything had hapened so quickly over the last 24 hours that she hadn't thought about how they would be at work with their relationship.

"I...I...hadn't thought about it" She began to reply while still thinking about it.

"I mean I still need to be professional and focus at work, so we can't be all over each other while we're trying to solve a murder" In her head that had sounded logical, seeing Rick nodding she guessed that he understood that to.

"As for telling people, I don't want to hide our relationship, but maybe we could keep it our secret till the end of this case, just to give us a bit of time to get used to it?"

"And turning up to a crime scene and anouncing that we're a couple while standing over a dead body might seem a bit disrespectful" He added.

"That too" Kate added, glad that they both seemed to be on the same page, not that they ever seemed to be on differant ones!

"How about this, after we solve this case we get the gang to The Old Haunt to celebrate, and tell everyone then" The idea had just popped into Rick's head from nowhere, but he thought it was a good one.

"Wow" Kate sounded geuinely shocked

"What?" Rick was looking very confused

"You actually came up with a good idea!" Her voice let through the laughter she'd been holding back.

"Well I was due one sooner or later" He let her have this one, no witty reply, he was just enjoying the sight of a happy Kate Beckett, his Kate Beckett.

"Anyway come on Caslte, this murder won't solve itself" Kate had settled back down and was now stepping through the door.

"I'm back to Castle again?" Rick asked as he locked the door behind him

"If we're going to keep us a secret while we work this case then we need make sure that we act exaclty like we did before" As she said that she leant into his side and linked her arm with his as they made their way to the elevator. In her mind they weren't technically at work yet so she could get away with snuggling up to him while they waited for the doors to open. Besides it's not like Rick was going to complain!

"Good point, we'll have to be careful not to slip up, the guys and Lanie won't be too happy if they find out about us before we tell them" They both shuddred at the thought of what Lanie might do to them for hiding such infomation.

Finally the a chime came from above the elevator door and they stepped in.

"Um Kate" Rick was forming a question for her as he reached forward pressing the ground floor button.

"Mmmm" Kate responded but was still just taking in the warmth of her partner as she rested against him.

"Can I drive us to this one?" Rick asked.

"Nope" She responded quickly and without hesitation.

"Pleeassee, just this once?" Rick pleaded again.

"Nope" Again she didn't even have to think about her answer.

"Why not?" Rick whined

"Because I'm not going to explain to Gate's how my car ended upside down in a tree while you were at the wheel prentending it was the Batmobile"

As the elevator doors slid closed Rick's voice could fainlty be heard saying "Ah you know me too well"


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N **- Once again sorry for the delay in updating, I've just not been able to find much time over the last week. I'd really appreciate feedback as to if people are still interested in this story, I still have a few more chapters planned which I'll try and update weekly. And as I don't live in the US, can anyone who live's there shed some light onto why their TV schedule's are so messed up? I mean why is there 2-3 week breaks between some episodes during a series, I don't just mean Castle but I've noticed it with a lot of things. Any that's my rant over with, so on with the story.

** Disclaime**r - I don't own Castle - if I did then I'd make sure there was an episode every week! No silly 3 week breaks!

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><p>Having missed most of the morning traffic the drive through the city was relatively swift and they were at their destination before they knew it.<p>

Stepping out of the car Rick looked around from where he stood taking in all the sights and sounds, snapping a mental picture incase they came in handy for one of his future novels. Either side of the main road appeared to be a couple of columns made up from a mixture of expensive looking SUV's and executive saloons, occasionally the sunshine would glisten off the metallic paintwork as it penetrated the shade formed by the rows of tree's that lined the sidewalk's next to the cars.

Set further back from the walkways were the apartment blocks themselves, they climbed several stories toward the sky but were still miniature in scale when compared to the rest of the New York cityscape. However across the street one apartment block stood out against the rest, the two police cruisers and M.E's van parked directly outside with the group of officers standing around the buildings entrance were certainly a feature that the other apartment blocks lacked.

"I think were in the right place" Rick confirmed the obvious to Kate, who had already closed her car door and made her way around to stand next to him.

"I'm glad your here" Kate watched Rick's face lit up as she said it, but after a brief pause she continued "I'd never have figured that out on my own" The sarcasm in her voice was accompanied by her customary eye roll as she turned and started walking in the direction of the building, hiding her smirk as she saw the grin instantly drop off from her partners face, he was too easy she thought to herself.

"You wound me detective" Rick pretended to sound hurt, but he knew this was just their fun little game they played with each other.

Kate stopped and turned back toward Rick "Only joking" she said sticking her tongue out at him.

"Your such a tease" Rick's grin returned once more

Kate walked back toward Rick and placed one hand on his chest, knowing that her back was to the officers that were at the door so none of them would see the small interaction between them. "You know I love you really" Her voice was soft and quiet just to make sure no one would overhear them just yet.

"That sounds better every time I hear it from you" Rick couldn't remember being this in love with anyone else before, he also knew that making it to the end of the case while keeping their new relationship a secret was going to kill him, all he wanted to do was take Kate into his arms and start making out with her there and then.

Kate's mind was in complete sync with his, it was taking all her energy to resist wrapping her arms around Rick and crashing her lips onto his, how she was going to keep her hands off him while they were at work all day was beyond her. Fearing she was about to loose all self control she decided they really should get back to the case, that would keep her mind distracted for a while she thought.

"We should get inside and solve this case" She said as she lowered her hand from his chest, straight away missing the physical contact between them.

"Ahem, uhh, right, case" Rick stuttered as his mind snapped away from the vivid images that his mind had been picturing.

Kate started walking back toward the entrance of the apartment block before turning her head back to Rick "You coming?"

Rick looked up and flashed a bright smile in her direction "Always" he replied before taking some quick steps to catch up with her. That single word causing a warm flood of happiness surge through Kate's body as they walked side by side toward the entrance, unaware of the four sets of eyes that had been watching them from a window above.

"I'm telling you somethings changed" Ryan announced as he looked down at the street below.

"I'm with you bro, they were defiantly acting a lot closer than normal" Esposito nodded in agreement with his partners conclusion.

"You can tell all that from up here? All Kate did was put her hand on dad's chest" Alexis was puzzled at the fact that the two detectives were coming to such deductions from such a simple action.

"That's why we're the detectives" Ryan and Esposito fist bumped to punctuate the point.

Alexis just let out a laugh, one of her favorite things about the internship she was doing with Lanie was that she got to spend time with all the people who had become her dad's best friends and an extension of their family. She now found Lanie to be an older sister to her, Ryan and Esposito were somewhere between cool older brothers and a strange comedy act, and though it seemed strange to her at first, Kate was almost like a mother to her.

"Sweetie, as much as it pains me to agree with chaos and mayhem over there, they have a point. I've known Kate a long time and she's never been one to express much affection toward anyone, and between that and the picture message you sent last night and how she just was, I'd say their moving forward" Lanie was thrilled at this progress, she'd been routing for the Beckett and Castle hook up the longest.

"Picture message?" Esposito cut in confused, looking at Ryan to see if he had any idea what the girls were on about, the blank look on Ryan's face suggested that he didn't.

"Oh you didn't know about it? And I thought you were 'the detectives'" Alexis air quoted that last part just to make the two partners regret being so smug a moment ago. A gesture which caused Lanie to burst into laughter this time.

"We'll she put you two in your places, nice one girl!" Lanie and Alexis shared a high five.

"Um so this picture message?" Ryan quietly spoke up trying to fish for more information.

"Would you mind doing the honor?" Lanie looked to Alexis who was already getting her phone out of her pocket.

"Sure, I've got it on here somewhere" She scrolled through the photos on her phone till she found the one in question, then turned the phone so Ryan and Esposito could see it.

"No way" Ryan and Esposito said at the same time in disbelief. In front of them was the picture of Beckett and Castle sat on the sofa with Beckett holding Castle's hand.

"Beckett's hold..."

"...ing Castle's hand" Esposito finished off the sentence that Ryan had started. To anyone else the image might have seemed insignificant, but to anyone who knew about the Beckett/Castle saga the picture of them so close resembled a bigger breakthrough than if scientists had discovered the Higgs boson particle. Hence why the two detectives seeing this for the first time were left momentarily speechless.

"This is bigger than we thought" Ryan whispered as if he was talking about some secret government conspiracy.

"The 'we' from earlier all makes sense now" Esposito added also in whisper as he brought his hand to his chin while in deep thought.

"Guys what on earth are you two on about?" Lanie raised an eyebrow thinking they'd both finally lost the plot.

"When we spoke to Beckett on the phone this morning to tell her to meet us here she said 'we'll meet you there' that was just before 9am this morning" Ryan said brining Lanie and Alexis up to speed.

"Meaning?" Lanie wasn't quite following.

"Normally she'd say 'I'll let Castle know' or 'I'll pick up Castle and meet you there', but this time she said 'we' it sounded like she was already with him" Esposito clarified their theory.

"So your saying she was already with writer boy?" Lanie now understood where the guys were coming from.

"Exactly!" Ryan nodded.

"So anything you want to tell us?" Esposito questioned, as he, Lanie and Ryan all turned their gazes upon the teenager.

"What? Why are you all looking at me?" Alexis took a slight step back, unsure why all the attention was on her all of the sudden.

"Come on girl you better not be holding any information from me" Lanie said in what Alexis had come to know as her 'scary give me the dirt on what you know or I'll make you talk' voice.

"I don't know anything more than you guys, honestly!" Alexis defended holding up her hands in mock surrender.

"Seriously?" Ryan asked even though his intuition told him that Alexis was telling the truth.

"I really don't" Alexis shook her head a little.

"Well do you remember seeing Beckett leave yours yesterday?" Esposito took a different line of questioning.

Alexis looked up and tilted her head slightly as she remembered the evening "No, I went to bed while they were still talking on the sofa"

"So maybe mom and dad got closer after she went to sleep?" Ryan turned to his partner waiting for his opinion on the theory.

"Plausible" Esposito agreed.

"Maybe my girl finally jumped writer boy then!" Lanie squealed with excitement at this possible development.

"Ewww!" Alexis shrieked earning a chorus of 'sorry' from the three adults who'd temporarily forgotten that they were in the presence of Castle's daughter.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for them two to come to their senses and get together, but I don't want to hear about stuff like that involving my dad" Alexis cringed.

"Sorry honey, didn't mean to put that image in your head" Lanie smiled apologetically to Alexis.

"Anyway, wasn't anyone there when you left this morning?" Esposito was once again the one to continue the questioning.

"Well I left really early this morning, to be honest I was in such a hurry I just ran downstairs, grabbed an apple from the kitchen then was straight out the front door, no one was up at that time" Alexis had in fact been in such a rush exiting the loft that she hadn't noticed the couple sleeping peacefully on the sofa in the living room.

"Maybe they were still in be...Uh...never mind" Ryan thought it would be best not to continue that sentence for Alexis sake.

"So anyway we're all in agreement something has changed between Beckett and Castle" Lanie looked at the other three who nodded their heads in agreement. "Which leaves us with two things to work out, are they together? and if so why are they keeping it a secret from us?" everyone could see the cogs turning in Lanie's head.

"In fairness we haven't actually seen them in person yet today, so they might tell us then" Ryan reasoned.

"Na, if something had happened between them I'm sure dad would have text me straight away, not to mention he'd have announced it on the morning news!" Alexis knew her dad would want to run around and tell the world.

"And my girl knows better than to hide something like that from me" Lanie added in a stern voice.

"So what do we do now?" Ryan asked not really sure where things went from here.

"You two just continue to do what your best at" Alexis voiced her opinion.

Ryan and Esposito shared a look before turning back to Alexis with a blank look. Seeing their puzzled expressions Lanie sighed and took over. "Your detectives, find clues and work out what's really going on between them".

"Ahhh" Ryan and Esposito were now on the same wavelength.

"No problems, we'll crack this case wide open" Esposito sounded confident as he threw a wink to Lanie who just rolled her eyes in response.

"Yeah, and maybe if there's time we'll work out who killed that guy too" Ryan nodded in the direction of the dead body that lay in the middle of the room.

"We're that good I'm sure we can do both" Esposito's statement earned another fist bump from Ryan. Their cockiness was short lived though.

"If you think your that good why don't we make things interesting" Lanie suggested with a scheming grin plastered over her face.

"What are you suggesting?" Espsoito asked already having a feeling what she was getting at.

"Fifty bucks says that me and Alexis can work out what's going on between Castle and Beckett before you two do" Lanie just couldn't resist the chance to show up the boy's at their own game.

"I swear you have a gambling problem" Ryan added, though after the glare he got from Lanie he retreated slightly behind Esposito.

"What's the matter? Scared?" Lanie folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at the two detectives.

"Finding things out is our job, you think you stand a chance?" Esposito challenged.

"Why not put your money where your mouth is?" Alexis jumped in excited by the challenge. Their detective skills against her and Lanie's ability to draw gossip from Kate and her farther.

"You're on!" This time it was Ryan who jumped in equally excited by the challenge.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N - **Sorry once again for the long time for updating, I had meant to get something up a few days ago. As always thanks to all that took the time to review and added to alerts, also thank you to Caskett1 for pointing out some errors, I've gone back and corrected some previous chapters, hopefully this one also. As I've said before spelling and grammar is a weakness of mine, writing for me isn't so much a learning curve, but more a a series of hairpin bends with a couple of chicanes thrown in for good measure, so please be patient with me as I'm sure I will still make some mistakes as I go. Again I'd love to hear any thoughts and feedback.

**Disclaimer - **Still don't own anything

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><p>The elevator dinged open and Kate and Rick stepped out walking down the wide corridor heading toward the entrance to Alex Warner's apartment. As they arrived at the end of the corridor the officer standing guard stood aside and nodded them through, Kate had been ready to show her badge, but a lot of officers seemed to recognize her and Castle so they often just let them through.<p>

Though Kate hadn't really gotten any of the details about the crime scene over the phone she had a rough idea of what to expect, there would maybe been a slightly trashed apartment indicating signs of a struggle or fight, possibly some blood trails, if their lucky the murder weapon, and of course a dead body, fairly run of the mill ordinary stuff (or at least ordinary if you work homicide). But as she entered the living room with Rick along side her they both stopped dead in their tracks, they turned and looked at each other in confusion before turning back and taking in the sight before them, never in all of Kate's years had she seen this at a crime scene before.

The room itself was fairly normal, a nice well furnished quite spacious apartment, against the edge of the room stood a large bookcase full of what appeared to be various books on law, a few photos stood upon some of the shelves, while some certificates hung framed on the cream coloured wall. In the middle of the room sat a large black leather sofa pointing toward a flat screen TV in the corner, between the two objects stood a glass coffee table with some blood on the edge of it, and finally the dead body of lay sprawled across the rug.

Nothing there was out of the ordinary, what had Rick and Kate so perplexed was that this was the first crime scene they had been to where no one was to been seen near the victim, in fact no one seemed to be aware that there was a dead body in the room. The two detectives and M.E team that had been first on site appeared to be huddled around near a window engaged in their own world unaware that the pair had entered. After sharing another confused look with one another Rick cleared his throat and announced their presence as he walked toward the group.

"Uh, why is everyone hiding from the body? Is it contagious?" He asked curious as to what was going on, instantly suspicious when the group stopped talking once they saw him and Kate in the room.

"Oh, hi dad, hi Kate, we were just ummm.." Alexis tried her best to come up with something but her mind went blank.

"..Explaining the cause of death to Ryan and Esposito" Lanie jumped in with a plausible cover for why they were all there.

"Don't you normally do that while examining the victims body? Not from 20 feet away on the other side of the room?" Kate glared at her best friend knowing she was up to something.

"Good point why don't I show you what we've got" Lanie casually strolled toward the body with both Kate and Rick following. Behind them Alexis silently mouthed 'that was close' to Ryan and Esposito who nodded in agreement before they all followed too.

Lanie crouched down next to the body and began to talk through her preliminary observations.

"As you can see there is an abrasion to the back of his head" She pointed to the area in question

"From the coffee table?" Kate questioned seeing the blood on the edge of the glass.

"Exactly" Lanie nodded in response "But that isn't what killed him, at the moment I would have to put cause of death at asphyxiation" She added.

"He was strangled?" Rick looked to the M.E for confirmation

"And the cookie goes to Castle" Lanie joked

"I get a cookie!" He excitedly said to Kate, and going from the twinkle in his eye she could tell he was actually picturing the cookie in his mind, she rolled her eyes at the thought and turned back to Lanie.

"Any idea on time of death?"

"I'm guessing recent? He still looks...fresh" Choice of a better word eluded Rick as he commented before Lanie answered.

Lanie narrowed her eyes at Rick giving him a glare, partially for cutting in as she was about to speak and partly because he just described a dead body as 'fresh'.

"I can't be exact till I get the body back to the lab, but I can give you a more accurate timeframe of between 11pm and 2am, rather than just 'recent'" She sent Rick another glare as she said the last part.

Kate had to bite her bottom lip to stop from laughing at how terrified Rick looked.

"Any idea what was used?" Kate went back to keep the questions rolling, only to her surprise it was Alexis that had the next answer.

"Hard to say at the moment, but maybe some sort of thick braided rope, you can just about make out some faint laceration marks on the neck, they should be a bit more visible in a day or two one the skin dries out a little" Alexis proudly contributed her findings, really happy that she was helping with an investigation.

"I'm impressed Alexis, you've really learnt a lot, maybe you should consider this full time after university" Kate half joked the last part as she smiled at the young redhead.

"Thanks Kate, actually I was hoping maybe I could get your advice on some career stuff sometime, if you have time that is?" Alexis admired Kate and was hoping to get her opinions on which university to go to and what careers to look at, sure she could ask her dad, but she'd asked Kate for advice about things in the past before and enjoyed their conversations.

"Sure I'd love to, maybe we could talk about it over some lunch this week?" Kate felt overjoyed that Alexis wanted to come to her for advice, she loved Alexis like she was her own daughter.

"Or actually why not come over for dinner tonight? We could talk while dad does the cooking" She said grinning as she remembered that it wasn't her turn to cook tonight, not that she really minded when it was her turn though.

"Sounds like a plan to me, I'll look forward to it" Being asked over to dinner at the Castle loft always put a smile on Kate's face, and this was no exception either.

While the two were chatting away Rick couldn't help but let a huge grin form across his face as he stared at Kate. The way she got along with his daughter and the way she was always happy to spend time with her couldn't have made him happier. It was also a good sign that Alexis would probably be happy for the pair of them when they got round to telling her that they were together.

The way Rick was looking at Kate didn't go un-noticed by Lanie and the guys, but all decided not to say anything for the time being.

"So any witnesses or suspects?" Rick had noticed the three pairs of eyes upon him and made an attempt to get their attention back to the case before that started asking questions.

"No witnesses, the building does have a doorman but he doesn't remember seeing anyone after 10pm last night, there are cameras in the lobby as well, so my and Ryan will check the footage later" Esposito smirked as he saw straight through Rick's blatant attempt at a diversion, before he could give him any grief though Ryan spoke up.

"As for suspects we don't have any specific people of interest just yet, but the list of people that might have wanted Alex Warner here dead is literally in the hundreds, a public defender cleaning up the city must have made a lot of enemies" Everyone's faces dropped a little as Ryan said 'hundreds', this was going to be a long case with a lot of paperwork and everyone now realized that. A brief silence fell over the room while they all thought about it, but with Rick in the room the silence didn't last long.

"That's it!" He practically yelled out causing everyone to look in his direction.

"Harvey Dent! That's who he is! " Rick jumped on the spot as he pointed to the body.

"Exactly! I knew you'd get it!" Ryan couldn't contain himself and was now acting like an excited child as well.

"I'm glad I finally got it! Beckett said you'd compared the victim to someone from Batman, but she wouldn't tell me who! I've been trying to work out who it was since we left this morning" Rick was so relieved that he'd solved the mystery of which character Ryan had been on about that he didn't notice his slip up of 'we'.

Kate just sighed and brought a hand to her forehead, Esposito gave her a look as if to say 'I feel your pain'. Alexis and Lanie looked at each other not having a clue what was going on, while Ryan and Rick had now engaged each other in a conversation about which Batman film was best. A few seconds later though Rick's choice of words sunk in as Lanie though about them, and hell she wasn't going to let this one go.

"Since 'we' left this morning? You and who Castle?" Her voice was raised enough to get Rick's attention away from his current conversation with Ryan.

Both him and Kate looked toward Lanie then back at each other in panic. Rick was mentally kicking himself for not thinking about what he said, while Kate was quickly thinking of a cover story.

"He means since we left when I picked him up outside his loft on the way over here" Kate managed to compose herself so her voice sounded as calm and normal as possible.

"Right, gave him a lift huh?" Esposito was buying any of it.

"Castle's loft would have been quite a detour to get here wouldn't it?" Ryan kept the pressure up, not buying any of it either.

"And thinking about it you guys did make it here in pretty good time considering you'd had to cut across the city to pick Castle up first" Esposito and Ryan were in full interrogation mode.

"Well it was just one of those mornings where there wasn't much traffic around" Rick smiled back casually hoping to sell the act, and technically he was right about there not being much traffic.

"Anyway we should be finishing off here and get the body back to the morgue, shouldn't you guys be looking for clues or something?" Alexis had actually jumped in to help take the pressure off the pair being bombarded by questions, but only because she saw that Ryan and Esposito were in good contention for wining the bet they'd all made earlier on, and she wasn't going to lose that easily.

"Right why don't you guys check up on the security footage from the lobby, Castle and I will finish looking around here then meet you back at the precinct" Kate was glad for Alexis interruption.

Ryan and Esposito shared a glance before leaving the room, as they did Ryan whispered "We're onto you", while Esposito raised two fingers pointed to his eyes then pointed at Rick and Kate, the universal 'we're watching you' signal.

Once they were out of the room Ryan started the conversation

"I can't believe Alexis interrupted, we almost had them"

"I know, I guess the girls are going to use every tactic to win this one" Esposito added in frustration.

"So what do you think our angle should be?"

"Castle, he's the weak link" Esposito knew that he was their best chance at finding out what was going on.

"Good plan, we should be able to break him" Ryan sounded a bit too eager which caused Esposito to give a worried glance in his direction.

"You know we just need to get him to tell us what's going on, he's not a murder suspect" Esposito reminded his partner.

"I know, I'm just so excited!" Ryan grinned back.

As they proceeded down the corridor they were both feeling confident in not only the fact that something had defiantly happened between mom and dad, but also that the bet was theirs for the taking.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N - **Firstly, what an amazing last episode! And great news about season 5 being confirmed! And secondly a big thanks to zentamaus who has helped me with checking over this chapter to correct errors and mistakes. Hope people are still following this, I know it has been a while since I've updated, but I do have a week off work at the moment so I'll try and catch up a bit more. Also on a random note, I saw the Avengers last week, and just simply wow! As always feedback appreciated :)

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><p>Ryan and Esposito's departure had left Kate and Rick completely stunned, the pair was left starring first at the door then at each other before Rick finally broke the silence.<p>

"Do you think they know about us?" His voice was barely audible as he made sure the M.E.-team in the room didn't hear.

"No, how could they? We only just got here, there's no way they could know." She was almost trying to convince herself rather than Rick, as both were unaware that their little interaction outside had been observed by their friends, neither could think of anything they had done at the crime scene itself that would give away their change in relationship.

"Your right, maybe they're just playing mind games with us." Rick found the idea quite possible as he thought about how much Ryan and Esposito liked to mess with him.

"They were probably just fishing for information on the off chance they might get something." Kate had decided to shrug off their whole 'we're-onto-you' act. After all, pretending you know more than you actually do was a technique they had all often used to get information from suspects while interrogating them.

"Well we can worry about them later anyway, in the meantime, shall we?" Rick gestured toward the center of the room indicating that they took a look around.

Kate flashed a smile toward him before saying that one word that had come to mean so much to the pair of them. "Always." With that she turned back into the room and headed off to look for clues that might help with the case, biting her bottom lip as she tried in vain to hide her grin from Lanie and Alexis when she passed them with Rick following her close behind.

Alexis and Lanie both noticed how much happier Kate seemed as she walked passed them toward the window. The difference in her smile was so subtle that to the untrained eye it would've stayed unnoticed, but they could tell it meant something had changed for the better in her life.

"So do you have a plan to win this bet?" Alexis asked Lanie.

"We need to divide and conquer" Lanie suggested knowing that trying to get information out of Rick and Kate together would be nearly impossible.

"How do we separate them though?" Alexis glanced at the two people in question, making sure they were still out of earshot. As it happens they were at the curtains by the window looking at the decorative ropes that held them back, no doubt discussing if it might have been what was used to strangle their vic.

"OK, well, they will have to come to see the body at some point later today, I'll make the call to tell Kate to come see me for the results, but just before I do you go up and drag your dad away from the precinct for lunch" While Lanie announced her plan of attack Alexis could have sworn she saw a sparkle in her eyes.

"Think you can handle that?" Lanie questioned in a more serious tone, wanting to make sure that Alexis would be able to complete her part in their scheme.

"No problem, I can keep an eye on them tonight at dinner as well, they might be more relaxed then and let slip details of whatever is going on between them." The redhead was clearly beaming with confidence that she could pull it off.

"The guys won't stand a chance," Lanie said as she smirked to herself.

While Kate studied the pattern on the ropes holding the curtains back, Rick had noticed the hushed voices and whispering between his daughter and 'The Scary One' as he sometimes called her.

"Something is definitely amiss here." Rick had a feeling there was a conspiracy going on that he didn't know about.

"I know it doesn't make sense, most people that would have wanted this guy dead would have been more likely to just shoot him as a revenge killing, strangling him means having to get up close and risk him fighting back." As Kate spoke she was still fully focused on the rope pondering if it might be the murder weapon.

"What? No, I didn't mean the case, I was talking about them." Rick leaned in a little closer to Kate and nodded towardAlexis and Lanie.

Kate glanced at Rick confused before turning her eyes in the direction he'd signaled.

"They're up to something. They've been whispering to each other ever since we came over here." Between what Ryan and Esposito had said and now this, Rick was starting to feel a little paranoid.

"Relax. Lanie's probably just giving Alexis advice on something" For a moment Kate was going to leave it at that, but realizing it had been a whole ten minutes since she'd last teased her partner she couldn't resist leaning in and adding "Or maybe they're discussing boys" As she turned and walked into the next room she heard Rick mutter something about 'not being sure what to be worried about more'.

The room they had walked into appeared to resemble an office or study, there was a large wooden desk to the rear of the room with a swivel chair and tall standing window behind it. Aside from a couple more large bookcases and some shelves with various ornaments on, there wasn't too much else of interest on the walls. The pair separated out and spent a couple of minutes in silence as they looked through the room for clues, Kate was scanning the bookcases starting from one end and working methodically to the back of the room where the desk stood, while at the same time Rick was examining the various pictures and decorative items that lined the shelves and sideboard on the other wall, all that could be heard until Kate broke the silence was the ticking from a small wooden antique looking clock that sat on a shelf raised behind the desk.

"So what's for dinner tonight?" Kate asked as she made her way around behind the desk.

Her out of the blue question caught Rick a little off guard, but once his brain caught up he looked toward her, meeting her eyes. "Whatever you're in the mood for. Any requests?"

Kate brought her hand up to her face, extending her finger, tapping it against her chin as she tried to decide what she was in the mood for. The thought of simply replying 'you' crossed her mind, but not wanting to make his ego too big so early in the day she decided against it, and instead played it safe replying "Pasta of some sort?"

"Sounds good to me, and I have just the bottle of wine put to one side to go with such a meal." After a brief pause he jokingly added "If my mother hasn't already drank it, that is." He was rewarded with a small burst of laughter from Kate, a sound that he would never get tired of.

"Should we tell them tonight?" For the second time in as many minutes Kate's question caught Rick off guard.

"I thought you wanted some time to get used to things before people knew about us?" Though Rick was happy that Kate was comfortable enough to bring up the subject of telling people about them, he didn't want her to feel pressured.

"Well, I know how much Martha and Alexis mean to you, and I couldn't ask you to hide something like this from your family," Kate spoke softly, though her voice sounded certain and resolute of what she was saying.

"Honestly, I can't wait to tell them. They'll be overjoyed at the news, but if you wanted to keep things quiet for a bit longer then I could do that, too." Rick had closed the distance between them so that he was now directly in front of Kate starring into her eyes.

"Do you really think Alexis will be OK with us being a couple?" Her voice was now laced with concern.

"She really will, she looks up to you and she'll be over the moon once she finds out." Rick knew Alexis had always liked Kate, and the fact that Kate was asking him if his daughter would be OK with their relationship let him know that she cared about Alexis just as much.

Kate let out a sigh of relief and with a new reassurance that Alexis would approve of their relationship she made a decision.

"Then I think we should tell them. It can be our little dinner announcement" She held his gaze as she placed her hands on his shoulders enjoying the contact between them. Rick had circled his arms around her waist pulling her slightly closer to him.

"This keeping our hands off each other while at work isn't really working is it?" He grinned.

"It is proving to be somewhat more challenging than I thought it would be." Kate grinned back as they both leaned in to share a kiss, though before their lips could meet the sound of movement in the other room snapped them back to where they were and they broke apart. What they had heard was most likely the body being put onto the gurney to be transported out of the apartment.

"We should, umm, get back to work." Kate felt frustrated at not finishing the kiss, but for now she needed to finish the job in hand.

"Right, uh...work." Rick had an equal level of frustration in his voice , but remembering they would have the whole evening together soon put a smile back on his face.

It didn't take long for Kate to switch back into Detective Beckett mode, she had soon began going over the items on the desk. She started by going through the recently dialed numbers in the phone, scribbling them down in her notepad as she did, a quick check of the answering machine revealed no saved messages so she moved on. She then began checking through some paper work on the desk, there didn't actually seem to be anything more than utility bills at first, there was a bank statement but no transactions for any large amounts that stood out, though after a little further digging something caught her eye.

"Hey Castle what do you make of this?" When nothing but silence came back in her direction she called out again.

"Castle?" Upon hearing no response a second time she lifted her head from the sheet of paper to check if he was actually still in the room. As it turns out he was only standing a meter away from her, only he seemed to be in a trance as he stood mesmerized by a metal sculpture that stood upon the corner of the desk. The object in question was of simple design, two slim metal rods rose up at an angle from the black rectangular base to form a triangular shape. At the peak of the triangle was another slim bar rotating vertically, with another slightly shorter bar rotating vertically around that. The two bars never seemed to follow the same pattern, both swinging silently around each other as they alternated between clockwise and anticlockwise. The animated sculpture continued to spin as Rick finally managed to draw his eyes from it and look toward Kate to see what she wanted.

"Huh? Sorry got a bit sidetracked there, what did you find?" He asked as he noticed the 'pay attention' look that Kate was giving him.

"Take a look at this, seems a bit of a strange thing for our vic to be buying" She handed Rick the A4 printed receipt so he could see the details.

Taking the sheet of paper from her, he quickly scanned the page to see what it contained, his eyes scrunching together as he saw the item she was on about.

"Strange indeed. What on earth was he up to?" The piece of paper seemed to be a receipt from a security shop for installation of a pinhole size surveillance camera with recording device.

"I'd guess he was either trying to blackmail someone, or get evidence for something, either of those.."

"..Would give someone enough motive to want him dead" The pair shared a grin as Rick once more completed the sentence that Kate had begun, they were always on the same wavelength.

"That raises three more questions" Rick almost worded the sentence as a challenge to Kate, to see if she could guess what they were, and as if reading his mind she accepted and began to ask what he was thinking.

"Where's the camera now? What did it record? And...actually, what is your third question?" Guessing the first two was easy, but she'd fallen at the last hurdle, and she hated that.

"My third is, isn't that thing driving you insane?" His words were rushed as he waved his hand once again at the swinging sticks sculpture on the desk which had been silently whirling away during their whole conversation.

"I mean this is crazy, it...it's like a Ferris wheel going aro..." Before he could continue his rant about the item that was clearly bugging him so much, Kate cut him off.

"Castle! Let it go, it's just a desk toy. Besides, we should be getting back to the precinct. Then after that we need to pay a visit to this shop and see if anyone remembers our vic buying that camera." She began to make her way out of the room but stopped in her tracks as Rick announced to 'hold on a second' while he made his way back to the desk. Once there he reached out and grabbed the two spinning sticks with one hand, holding them both together in an upright position, with the other hand he grabbed a metal pen pot and some other small items form the desk and wedged them either side of the sticks to stop them moving. As he let go the sticks still began to move a little, causing him to let out a sigh of defeat. "Lets go," he muttered under his breath as he walked past Kate and out of the door. Having seen the whole thing, Kate let out a small chuckle to herself, he was such a big child, but that just made her love him even more. With that thought lighting up her face she just turned on the spot and headed out the same door after him.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N - **Hope you are all still enjoying this. Once again thanks to zentamaus for helping me out as a beta. And thanks again to all those still following.

**Disclaimer - **I don't own anything to do with Castle.

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><p>Back at the precinct Ryan was just exiting the break room with a fresh coffee in his hand as he noticed Kate and Rick heading in his direction.<p>

"Hey guys. If I'd known you were gonna be back so soon I'd have made you both one as well." He used his free hand to gesture to the cup of steaming liquid he was holding.

"That's ok, we'll make one in a moment anyway," Kate replied, appreciating the offer.

"Ok. Just let it be noted that I offered. Unlike certain people around here who just make one for themselves." Ryan raised his voice deliberately so Esposito could hear him, at the same time he shot a glare in the direction of the detective who was simply raising his own coffee mug with a smug grin on his face. Kate and Rick glanced at each as they walked with Ryan back to his desk, both having a feeling that they were about to join in on another one of the duo's little arguments.

"For the last time, bro: you weren't around to ask!" Esposito defended as the three approached him.

"You knew I'd only gone to get some files, you could have come and found me or waited till I got back." Ryan sulked as he took his seat.

"Ok, so you're saying that from now on every single time that I want a coffee, I have to check in with you first?" Esposito's voice was laced with sarcasm as he spun in his chair to see what reply his partner would come back with.

Ryan turned in his own seat to meet Esposito's stare. "Not every time, but it would be nice if you offered to make the coffees every now and then."

"Now, now, children, settle down." Rick joked as he tried to interrupt the bickering detectives.

"I swear you two got married at some point and didn't tell us." Kate smiled to herself as she knew her words would stop their squabbling. And true enough they both united to defend her accusation.

"Hey, if anyone's the married couple around here it's you guys!" Esposito pointed to Rick and Kate. Ryan also jumped in to back his partner up. "Exactly! So was it a nice ceremony? Or have you still to set a date?" With that they celebrated with a fist bump, their previous coffee argument all but forgotten between them.

Without thinking Rick threw in his own comeback. "Just for that, when we do set a date, neither of you are invited." The second the words left his mouth he could feel all three sets of eyes upon him; he started to mentally kick himself once he realized what he'd just said. Kate turned to him with her mouth hanging open in shock, though as she spent more time thinking about the idea of being married to Rick she found herself having to bite her bottom lip in order to try and prevent the huge smile that was starting to form across her face. Rick nervously looked at Kate in an attempt to gauge her reaction, he was expecting to either see her standing there glaring at him, or to see a Kate Beckett shaped hole in the wall as she bolted out of the precinct. Seeing her looking back at him seemingly happy about the idea was something that pleasantly surprised him. The couple soon found themselves locked into each others eyes once more, the words of their love and need for each other being conveyed in their own silent language.

In the meantime Ryan and Esposito leant in and clinked their coffee mugs together as if to celebrate that they were getting closer to the truth (and winning the bet). The sound of the mugs pinging together also seemed to help break Kate and Rick out of their gaze. As Kate noticed her two colleagues grinning at her, she decided it would be best to move the conversation on before they could get any comments in.

"So, any luck with the security footage?" She tried to act as professional as possible, but couldn't help herself from sneaking one last look at Castle.

"Actually there are a few things of interest." Esposito smirked as he replied; he knew Kate was trying to move the conversation on to avoid any further teasing from him and Ryan.

"You got the killer leaving?" Rick asked, sounding hopeful.

"Not quite that lucky, the footage still doesn't show anyone entering or leaving around the time our vic was murdered," Ryan added.

"So what've you got then?" Kate asked intrigued as to what her boys had found.

"Well first there's this guy," Esposito spun his monitor around for all to see. On the screen was a black and white still image of a man with dark hair in his late thirties wearing jeans and a t-shirt, a rucksack slung over his shoulder. "According to the sign in book that the doorman gave us, this guy signed in to visit our vic a few days ago."

"And not for long either, he arrives at 9.33am, leaves ten minutes later, then returns at 2.07pm, then again he's seen exiting about ten minutes later," Ryan added as he looked up from his notepad which he'd jotted down the times on.

"And check this out." Esposito tapped a few buttons on his keyboard which brought up four pictures on his screen; each was a close up of the backpack that the suspect was carrying. "See when he arrives the backpack looks empty and scrunched up, when he leaves the sides are pushed out as if it's suddenly full. When he comes back the second time it looks full going in, then empty coming out." He pointed to each picture as he showed them.

"And that's not even the suspicious part yet," Ryan spoke up.

"Then what is?" Kate asked.

"Well the name this guy used to sign in with was John Smith, sounded fake to me, so I checked our vic's diary to see if he wrote down this guys real name in his appointment schedule."

"And?" Kate prompted.

"His schedule had him representing a client in court at the time of these visits, I phoned the court house and confirmed it too." Ryan concluded.

"So let me get this straight, our mystery man arrives, breaks into the apartment, steels something, then has a change of heart a few hours later so brings it back and leaves again?" Rick scrunched his eyebrows together as he gave it some thought.

"What? No CIA conspiracy theory yet?" Kate teased.

"It's still early, give me time," Rick grinned back.

"Before we go chasing after the CIA, there's one more thing that we picked up on the camera footage." This time it was Ryan who spent a few seconds tapping away at his keyboard before pointing to his monitor. "This guy here is seen leaving at 2.40am the night before our vic was murdered. As you can see his cap makes it hard to see any of his face on camera."

"2.40am? That's odd. So do we have an ID on this guy? Another Mr. Smith?" Kate knew expecting a murderer to sign in using a real name was a bit of a long shot. But one of these days they might just get someone stupid enough to do it.

"Well actually that's why I flagged this guy as suspicious. I've gone back through the sign in log and the camera footage. But this person never entered the building!" Explained the Irish detective. Kate looked at him as if he'd gone mad.

"How is that possible? If he came out, then he must have gone in at some point." She was cut off by a rather excited Rick.

"Unless he parachuted onto the roof from a plane, killed our guy then just walked out the front door! Or maybe he's a ninja and he jumped through the window! Maybe he's a time traveler that entered the building years ago, but caught in a dimensional rift and only just found his way ou..."This time Kate cut him off.

"Castle!" Kate secretly enjoyed his crazy theories, but she knew if she didn't stop him now then he'd be there all day reeling them off. "Firstly I'm sure someone would notice someone parachuting onto the roof. Secondly I doubt it's a ninja, and all the windows were intact anyway. Don't even get me started on your time travel idea." She rolled her eyes at the last one, before turning to Ryan and Esposito. "Why don't you two take pictures of our two suspects back to the crime scene and see if any neighbors recognize them. We'll follow up on the shop our vic bought a hidden camera from."

"You got it, we just need to finish cleaning up this footage to get a better still shot, and then we'll head out," Esposito replied as he turned his attention back to the monitor, and started clicking away with the mouse.

"No problem, we're gonna grab a coffee before we head out anyway." Kate knew she didn't need to chase her boys up; they'd always get the job done. "Come on Castle, though I'm not sure more caffeine is a good idea for you." She playfully hit his arm as she joked with him.

"Right behind you." There was no witty return this time as he smiled back at her. Subconsciously he put his hand on the small of her back and guided her toward the break room.

The two detectives, who were supposed to be paying attention to their monitors, had both stopped working as they once again found themselves more interested in the relationship development between their friends.

"Did you see that?" Ryan asked his partner quietly.

"Castle just put his hand on Beckett's back and guided her to the break room," Esposito confirmed what his partner had seen.

"And she didn't shoot him," Ryan added.

After a brief pause Ryan looked toward the break room, then back at his partner. "Come on. I've got a plan," he said as he stood up and gestured for Esposito to do the same.

Esposito just looked blankly at his fellow detective for a few moments, before standing up and mumbling, "why do I get the impression this isn't going to be good?"

Moments later the break room was filled with the sound of laughter as Kate and Rick sat on the sofa joking with each other while drinking their coffees. Unbeknown to them, two homicide detectives were crouched on the floor outside peering inside, the tops of their heads just about visible above the bottom of the window next to the coffee machine.

"This was your plan? For the record it's stupid!" Esposito quietly muttered to Ryan.

"Look, I didn't see you coming up with a better idea!" Ryan argued back, though again quietly in order not to blow their cover.

"We're trained detectives for god's sake. If Lanie and Alexis saw us now they'd never let us live it down!" He tried to shake the thought from his mind. "And if Gates catches us, you're explaining things!"

"Relax. Gates isn't in at the moment. And Lanie and Alexis won't know about this." Ryan hushed his partner as he tried to listen in to Kate and Rick's conversation to see if they let anything slip.

"We are getting some strange looks from everyone else that walks past though." Esposito whispered back as he gave an embarrassed wave to an officer that was walking out the elevator looking very confused.

"Just go with it, this could be our best chance of finding if they are together yet." Ryan pleaded.

"Fine." Esposito wasn't convinced but he wanted to find out the truth as much as Ryan did.

Back inside the break room Kate and Rick continued to discuss nothing in particular for a few more minutes, until Rick's stomach sent out a rumble. Kate just looked at him for a second before she burst out laughing.

"I can't believe you're hungry already," Kate chuckled.

"It's been a long morning," Rick pouted.

"Are you saying that the pancakes I made this morning weren't good enough?" She crossed her arms as she acted hurt.

"Not at all, they were truly wonderful, I could get used to them everyday." He teased back, causing Kate to giggle at the thought.

"I don't know, even though you made the coffee, I think we'd have to take turns making the pancakes," she said suggestively, causing Rick to gulp down the mouth full of coffee he had.

Back outside Ryan and Esposito dropped back down out of sight before turning to each other in shock.

"Did you hear that?" Esposito doubted his ears.

"Yeah, Castle made his partner coffee, rather than just making one for himself!" Ryan still hadn't let their earlier incident go completely. "Oww!" He muttered as Esposito's hand smacked him on the back of the head.

"Seriously bro? After what we've just heard and you're brining that up again? Let it go! There are bigger things going on here." He made a mental note to make Ryan a coffee later just to stop him going on about it.

"Ok, fine. But was hitting me really necessary?" Ryan sulked while he rubbed the back of his head.

"Do you think this means we win the bet?" Esposito decided to ignore Ryan's question and ask one of his own instead.

"I don't think so. We haven't got anything to say they're together yet, only that they had breakfast this morning. Even if it was pancakes."

"True. At least it's something the girls don't know about though. I'd say it puts us in the lead!" Esposito said as he tried to picture how annoyed Lanie would be when she found out he knew something she didn't.

"Plus it gives us something to tease them about!" Ryan added with an evil grin as they quietly fist bumped. Celebrations were short lived however, as a few seconds later they saw two shoes appear next to them.

As Rick walked out of the break room he caught something out the corner of his eye that made him stop in his tracks. Turning to his right he had to look twice to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him, the sight of Ryan and Esposito crouched on the floor whispering to each other was perplexing to say the least. He made his way over to them, knowing that he wouldn't get any answers unless he asked.

"Hey guys." Ricks voice startled the dynamic duo, and they practically fell back on the floor against the wall in shock.

"Jesus Castle! Did you have to sneak up like that?" Ryan moaned.

"Yeah bro, way to give someone a heart attack!" Esposito said as he glared at him.

"Sorry." He held his hands up in apology while looking down at the two on the floor. "But what exactly are you guys doing down there anyway?" Rick asked still having no clue what was going on, though for some reason he also found himself now crouching down with them.

Ryan and Esposito both looked at each other, silently trying to communicate what lie to go with.

"I dropped my car keys," Ryan said sounding a little unsure of weather that was the best excuse he could come up with.

"And it took both of you to find them?" Rick sensed something didn't add up, but couldn't put his finger on what.

"Well, I just figured after the way Ryan complained about me not getting him a coffee, he might complain if I didn't help him find his keys." Rick nodded at Esposito in agreement with his logic. Ryan used the time to slip his keys out of his pocket and place them next to his foot, not before shooting Esposito a glare.

"I thought you were getting a coffee anyway?" Esposito tried to move the conversation on, to make sure Rick didn't end up thinking about the situation to much.

"I did, just finished it, but Beckett got a phone call, so I said I'd head out and meet her by the car," replied Rick.

Ryan made use of this second distraction to pick his keys up, and jingle them in front of Castle, so as to help verify their story. "Found them!"

"I'm not even going to ask what you guys are doing." This time it was Kate's voice that made all three fall back in surprise.

"Found my keys!" Ryan once again waved them in the air, while Esposito just laughed nervously.

"Uhhh, ok" Kate just gave a strange look at the three grown men who were on the floor in the middle of the precinct. Eventually she just shook her head, deciding it best not to ask anything further. "You coming, Castle?" she said as she passed him on her way out.

"Right behind you." He smiled as he stood up and followed her out, waving to Ryan and Esposito as he left.

"Man, that was too close!" Ryan sighed in relief once they were out of sight.

"Tell me about it." Esposito agreed. As the pair sat on the floor feeling thankful that Rick didn't seem to have heard anything, they were interrupted once more by another voice.

"What on earth do you two think you are doing?" Gates voice boomed out as she towered over them. Ryan and Esposito both gulped as they looked up to see their captain standing there with her arms crossed, one eyebrow raised as she sent them a piercing glare, clearly expecting a damn good explanation.

The two of them looked at each other then back at Gates. "Keys," they replied simultaneously with sheepish grins on their faces while Ryan just waved them in the air_; _again.


End file.
